Tolley ignores mistreatment of kids at private schools

Following my last guest post which received over 100 comments, here’s an update with proof that Hon Anne Tolley has made complaints about what amounts to child-abuse disappear to avoid obeying the Human Rights Act and legislating for children’s welfare in this sector.

With a whopping 91% of surveyed parents agreeing with the Law Commission that private schools should be required by law to provide “a safe and supportive environment“, (R14, page 4) the Government’s statement that “no evidence exists of any problems” (Parliamentary question for written answer 10761 (2010)) as their entire rationale for not correcting the situation needs some analysis at the very least; especially given all the ubiquitous rhetoric on choice and parent power.

Unsurprisingly the “no evidence” assertion doesn’t stand up to the slightest scrutiny. Well it was a pretty rich claim to make in the first place. Given that the Government didn’t even check with the Ministry (question for written answer 23668 (2010)), the arrogance of that statement is truly stellar. Clearly Anne Tolley does not want to know whether or not there are any problems at private schools or she might have to make some changes.

So what happened when Parliamentary questions prompted her to have a look?

The Minister admitted first to two complaints (QWA 18143 (2010)) and then, when challenged about that number, came up with first one (QWA 26428), and then another two more, (26362 (2010)). Even though that makes five, she will now still only admit to four complaints in the last two years. Perhaps Anne Tolley should test herself against the National Standards! Clearly five (or four) complaints is not “no evidence” of any problems. Unfortunately, it is easy to prove that this number is again completely misleading.

One particular “problem”, the expulsion of three small children from a private school in West Auckland, has magically morphed into an issue about the school failing to look after one child sufficiently with no mention of the fact that the October 2009 complaint (QWA 26362 (2010)) was actually about three children being expelled.

Somewhere between the office of Mr Bruce Adin, manager of the Northern Branch of the Ministry, and Anne Tolley’s office, two of the children involved in this complaint have completely disappeared. When the situation surfaced through Parliamentary questions Anne Tolley said “The October 2009 complaint relates to a parent complaining about a private school failing to meet standards of care for their child.” (QWA 26362 (2010))Child, singular. No mention of expulsions, exclusions, or enrolments.

Yet Bruce Adin’s correspondence with the family clearly shows the true nature of the October complaint. Writing by email to the parents of the children on the 5th of February, 2010 at 11.33 am he said (see attached image):

“The Ministry is not empowered to undertake a judicial or review process and cannot review nor amend the decisions of The Rudolph Steiner School, Titirangi regarding the enrolments of your children…..The Education Act does not require private schools to follow any particular practices when ending an enrolment.”

This cynical “interpretation” of complaints demonstrates a complete lack of interest in the actual effect of private school’s damaging actions towards children. How many other complaints have been similarly obfuscated?

As Anne Tolley has admitted that two out of the four acknowledged complaints were about children being unfairly excluded from private schools (QWA 26362 (2010)), the real tally should be five complaints about expulsions alone. Surely 5 complaints is sufficient reason to require schools to inform parents about their policies and procedures at the very least, as recommended by the Law Commission and desired by 93% of surveyed parents. After all, even that legislation would only amount to a sort of disclaimer to alert and inform parents. What is choice without information?

When the Education Minister is faced with facts that don’t fit with the agenda, apparently the facts have to change and sadly, given the provable reality of this cover-up, the real tally of “problems” may be much higher.

What is cynical and really scary is the recognition that the Government would have done this with whatever information it encountered, to follow it’s own agenda. Presumably any misery inflicted on a child by a private school, even to the extent of that child losing the will to live, would be sanitised in the same way to present the desired picture.

So what is the Government’s agenda on private education? Given that when this Bill becomes law (and it is about to be rushed through), private schools will still be completely free of any obligation to even inform parents about the lack of legal protection, or indeed give them any proper contracts, even though the Minister has opined that contract law will suffice to sort out any problems (QWA 10775 (2010)), what will Education Amendment Bill 2 do to the law on private schools?

Instead of securing the welfare of children, the Bill makes provision for “conditional or unconditional grants” to be made to private schools from the public purse. The amounts of such grants will be “at the Minister’s discretion“. (Section 35 O)

What the redirection of public money into such an unregulated sector means is that when these schools continue to hurt children, they will be doing it with Government sanction, and using your money.

One of the complaints from many parents of children at private schools, is that they are denied the obligation to take part in the brilliant National Standards Program. Given that they pay big money to the schools, they expect that their children would be measured by the very exact NS criteria. This way it would show the extent that given their big socio-economic advantage, many are below the National Standards being enthusiastically embraced by 98.34% of parents in the State sector.

When asked Minister of Ed Ann Tolley denied all knowledge of National Standards.

in case you didn’t read beyond the first line Guest is making a spurious claim bout “what amounts to child abuse” in private schools and uses complaints about unfair exclusions from private schools to back up that hokum.

Almost as funny as Colonial Viper claiming NZers are living in poverty because they can’t get a 20Mbps 250GB internet plan

Very entertaining. Laughed and laughed and laughed til I pissed myself

[lprent: A weeks ban. The poster did not use “what amounts to child abuse” or anything like it. Therefore you’re putting words into the mouth of an author which I barely tolerate between commentators and don’t tolerate at all for authors.

The only reason you’re getting this little is because of your past generally acceptable behavior on site.

Incidentally if you hadn’t been so hypocritical as to accuse ianmac of thread-jacking I probably wouldn’t have looked at this comment. Which ianmac clearly wasn’t – the post was about complaints about private schools. His comment was just slightly off-topic. ]

You might be right joe though I wasn’t quite sure what a thread-jack was. My intention was to show that Private Schools seem exempt from scrutiny on many matters. Parents and Schools both have a vested interest in hushing complaints. (A few years ago I was indirectly connected to 4 North Island Schools and was dismayed at what goes on there at least a while ago now.)

Excuse me, Mr Bloggs, what exactly was it you found so funny? Are you making a point that because most private schools are full of extremely wealthy people that the fact that NZ law allows small poor rogue schools to operate with impunity, provably causing damage to children doesn’t matter?

Is the basis for your hilarity therefore that some children are more important than others? Or that if it’s only a small number of children who are left psychologically scarred for example, that they don’t really count? Compared to what? Compared to who? That sounds like Anne Tolley’s line.

Maybe they don’t count simply because other children go to more expensive, or better run private schools, so you’d rather just think of them all like that and not know the grim reality.

Or is it that, given that rich private schools exist at all, the fact that information has been tampered with by officers of the Crown is irrelevant? I’m not quite getting it.

Ahem, I certainly did use that phrase in my posting. The current law, this Bill and the amended Act have do and will sanction and support potentially corrupt institutions that can misuse children, for example as fodder for extreme bullying, expel them (and their siblings) if their parents complain, and then deny that they have done so.

If anyone thinks such treatment of children is not abusive, I’d like to know what dictionary they are using. Of course, traumatic experiences can happen anywhere, but the point is that the potential for private schools to dish it out is being actually re-built in to the law. If you think it’s funny, that’s because you have not witnessed the results. If you insist that my claim is “spurious” then where’s your evidence?

The Uk’s new Free schools, publicly funded but completely self-governing, will be run on similar lines and David Cameron enthused that they are to be so unregulated that no-one will ever know what goes on in them. New Zealand could show them a thing or two.

All we have argued for is what would amount to a disclaimer to inform parents (information – the basis of choice) who overwhelmingly appear to believe that their children’s welfare is protected the same as other children’s, under the Education Act. Why are so many harbouring such illusions? Well apart from schools not being obliged to tell them, perhaps it’s because it is so ridiculous that something called a school is not required by law to look after the welfare of children, that it just wouldn’t occur to most people.

Anne Tolley has said no to a disclaimer. No warning.

High Trust = Buyer beware. QED

[lprent: bugger – you’re correct. First paragraph. I must have screwed the search. Removing the ban from bloggs, and apologizing. ]

If the rich , the snobs , and the few disillusioned working people wish to send their little darlings to a private school well let them. However dont lets be sucked into being concerned about them or financing them. Stop all taxpayer money that’s paid to these snoby schools and let the parents be their own watchdogs . Personally I could not care less how private schools run their buusiness, If they are ill treating their pupils well that the job of the police.There is nothing wrong with state schools except the need of more money . The $35 million plus that is pumped into private schools by this government is a disgrace. The expensive equipment and sports grounds our local private school has compaired the the local state high school is mind bogling . Let these rich tax dodgers pay their own way
let them “pull their belt in” they are quick enough to tell working people just that!

Private education isn’t going anywhere – it’s very much on the agenda of all Right Wing governments. And it will be paid for by tax-payers. These issues, I agree, need attention. What you are suggesting, however, is not a solution to any of that, but a recipe for disaster.
Whether or not public money is pumped into the private system, children’s welfare has to be a consideration. Your suggestion to basically allow a totally unregulated education system to run unchecked, simply because you dislike rich parents, belies any concern you profess for children at any schools!
Is there some visceral delight to be had at the idea of the children getting hurt, if their parents have fallen for a version of choice rhetoric, and have the money to pay for it?
What kind of socialism is that?

except that private schools are under no legal obligation to provide any contracts. The Law Commission recommendation that schools should be required to state what their welfare obligations are to children, have been ignored, too expensive apparently to produce a piece of paper.

Good luck trying to sort that out with contract law! It’d simply be “he said” “she said” with the judge probably on a private school board anyway. I reckon you’d have better luck sorting out a problem with a faulty hoover!

And it’s not just the $35,000,000. The “unconditional” grants don’t have an upper limit.

The $35million was additional to that already paid. Not sure how much that they were already getting but it is heaps. They argue that if the taxpayers didn’t bail them out then all the private school kids would end up at the State schools and wouldn’t that be awful! Big classes. Limited equipment. And mixing with the yokels!

As a pupil of private schooling there were abuses that went on: pupils bullying other pupils where nothing effective was done and teachers who hectored some poor kids mercilessly.

In form two I had a teacher give me and a few others in my class a really hard time but as a nun she was almost above reproach, or so I thought. One day, one very doughty mother came up to the school at lunchtime and dressed her down in front of the whole school. We didn’t dare laugh or show pleasure at her comeuppance in any way, but inwardly cheered as she finally got some of her own medicine.

After that she laid off quite a lot, perhaps scared of getting the treatment again. If private schools were held to some state standards then maybe most parents could lobby for some change or accountability in a particular school.

All schools need to be scrutinised where child welfare is concerned. It doesn’t matter that some people view these schools as snobbish, children shouldn’t suffer at the hands of adults in schools who have tremendous sway and power.

Not all kids who attend private schools are snobs – the nuns made sure you had very little ego. My parents wanted to give us the best education they could, but we always mixed and have continued to mix with all kinds of people, it makes life more interesting – not for me the barren enclaves of the old school tie network – I don’t mix with anyone from those days.

Regarding the pink postman’s letter and the Angel’s reply; I think there are two distinct issues here which we should not confuse.

(1) The funding by the taxpayer (or indeed the existence at all) of private schools and

(2) The protection of children (and adults for that matter) from bullying and other forms of harmful aggression.

The underlying socio-political issues are 1, the right to equality in educations vs. the right to choose and, 2, New Zealand’s culture of family violence and institutional bullying (which are, in my view intimately connected) vs. the right to play rugby.

I think that (1) requires political balancing and (2) needs better recognition and much better protection for people in vulnerable positions.

Thanks Nick for your clarity. I totally agree that the distinction between the two should be clear, but the combination of public money and deregulation will be disastrous for some children in some schools.

The policing mechanism of the “high trust model” is supposed to be parent power i.e. the power to leave the school. This mechanism can already easily be corrupted by something as simple as it being a “specialist” form of education of which there is not a huge amount. In such a case it is possible for habitually abusive schools to lie low even in the event of repeated mass evacuation, and wait for fresh blood to arrive. This is true even if half the parents do get up and leave and even if the reason they did so was because of atrocious bullying. People and animals drink from dirty water holes if they must. Whatever you think of people who are so averse to public schooling that they would rather educate their children in a dirty water-hole, the state should not sacrifice children in this way.

Giving more and yet more money to these schools isn’t just a scandal of financial sleight of hand, hypocrisy and the promotion of social inequality to the detriment of the vast majority at state schools.

This Amendment to the Education Act will further aid abusive and effectively rogue schools who will damage more children as a result, whilst the Act also denies those children any human rights. And that’s a fact.

Thing is, to me at least, and I readily acknowledge that I’m a simple soul, they are private schools. I’m cool with that. If people want to send their kids to a private school for whatever reason, and a school exists that offers what they are after, then sweet as sez I.

But let’s a get a few things straight.

‘Private’ doesn’t mean unregulated. It doesn’t mean that for medicine for example. It doesn’t mean that for anything. So regulation, per se, is not something that diminishes what private means.

Obviously private means something though in terms of freedom from government control, but I suspect it shouldn’t mean that private schools are free to offer an unsafe environment, or a syllabus that doesn’t meet some sort of minimum standard.

It seems to me that the freedoms people are after, are freedoms to provide extra things that the public system cannot provide. This might be straight up resourcing, better labs, better sports equipment, more specialised teaching, more specialised courses. Or it may be some sort of character, religious education or some philosophical approach, or a militaristic one, or just a straight up elitist one. None of this do I have any problem with. You want it, someone wants to provide it, it meets the regulatory minimum standards, then go for it. As long as you are the one paying for it.

I can’t think of any reason for the state to subsidise this. If it is to be private, and if private is what they want, then private it should be. If the state is paying for it, it ain’t private.

If the people want the state to provide the sorts of schools that the private sector is presumed to provide, then that’s another question, and it should provide them. But if the state has no mandate for providing these schools, then it shouldn’t be paying for them. And if parents want their children in private schools, they have no business asking for the state for subsidies.

The state doesn’t pay for the education of a child based on the tax status of it’s parents. Nor does a citizen have 1 cent of their their tax calculated on the resources used in educating their children. Arguments for state funding of private schools that ignore those two facts, or assume the opposite to be true, are not something I find worth spending any time considering.

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By Mike Hosking. Yesterday morning, I waltzed into work, and as I walked past the drones aggressively typing out news on the computers I’ve repeatedly asked to be moved further away from, I caught a glimpse of the words “climate change”, and noticed that suspiciously they weren’t in condescending quotation ...

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National's Deputy Leader Paula Bennett spent the week claiming a serious cover-up in the Prime Minister's office. She used parliamentary privilege to name three of the Prime Minister's closest advisors who, she says, knew about the sexual assault ...

“The Game Animal Council is concerned that the Government’s second tranche of firearms legislation released today may contain unreasonable provisions that will unfairly impact hunters,” says Game Animal Council Chair Don Hammond. ...

Government policy work on the Carbon Zero bill highlights connections between climate change, carbon sequestration and agriculture. Water quality and allocation are also topical with the release of the Draft Policy Statement for Freshwater Management ...

DairyNZ Chief Executive Dr Tim Mackle is welcoming this afternoon’s announcement that consultation on Essential Freshwater has been extended by two weeks - but is calling on the Minister to go further. ...

Immigration New Zealand could really benefit from an large investment of money, comments Ms June Ranson, chair of the New Zealand Association for Migration and Investment (NZAMI) , a leading voice in the immigration sector. “Instead of spending $25m ...

In recent times there has been no shortage of commentary regarding whistleblowers, with the proposed amendments to the Protected Disclosures Act 2000. These are aimed at strengthening the protection available to whistleblowers in New Zealand. That ...

Gun Control NZ strongly welcomes the comprehensive gun law reform bill and calls on all political parties to support it. Gun Control NZ encourages New Zealanders to let their MPs know they support this Bill, submit to the Select Committee, and ...

Federated Farmers agrees with most of the steps by government to protect people from illegal or irresponsible firearms use. But concerns about pest control and the effectiveness of a register remain. ...

Today at Parliament the NZ Drug Foundation released Taking control of cannabis: A model for responsible regulation, a new report that shows how we can take back control of cannabis from organised crime. ...

Smoking kills 5,000 Kiwis each year, so any government policies to help reduce smoking are a good thing. However, the current approaches are not working nor will the proposed limit on flavoured e-liquid that Associate Minister Salesa announced on the news ...

A petition, that promises a significant and dramatic improvement for the New Zealand economy, was handed to Dr Deborah Russell, the MP for New Lynn today. The petition, signed by over 5,000 New Zealanders addresses our crippling level of debt as well ...

The New Zealand Medical Association welcomes the announcement of an Initial Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission. We look forward to working with the newly appointed Chair Hayden Wano and the Commission. “It is vital that the steps to mental health ...

For anyone who even randomly follows the news will know that Hong Kong has been embroiled in demonstrations for months. These sometimes bloody demonstrations initially started as a result of a proposed Extradition Bill whereby there would be special ...

The release yesterday of Port Otago’s financial result for 2019, outlining a 12% increase and profits, including the news that the Chief Executive had received a $100,000 pay increase taking his remuneration to between $610,000-620,000, is like ...

“ I continue to be amazed at the incompetence of this Government when it comes to suicide prevention and mental health. Not only is this Government about to appoint a regional coroner who has a history of under reporting suicides amongst children ...

The Far North District Council (FNDC) and the Whangarei District Council (WDC) have lodged a joint appeal against the Northland Regional Council’s (NRC) omission of precautionary rules in its plan. [1] ...

The Chairman of the Authority, Judge Colin Doherty, has agreed to assist the Hong Kong Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC) as a member of an international panel to provide high level advice to the IPCC in relation to its proposed "Thematic ...

“Putting families into motels is a temporary fix for desperate situations, rather than a sustainable solution to problems of poverty and homelessness,” says Scott Figenshow, Chief Executive of Community Housing Aotearoa. He was commenting on media ...

The New Zealand Psychological Society (NZPsS) says the current partial strike by 600 psychologists working in district health boards is a sign that temporary fixes to ongoing workforce shortages in the profession are not working. ...

New Zealand’s contribution to military operations in Malaya and Malaysia from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s will be commemorated in a national service held at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park at 11.00am on Monday 16 September. ...

The resignation of the President of the Labour Party over the sex pest allegations was inevitable. It was inevitable because of his appalling handling of the situation so far; and, because in situations like this where there has to be a “fall guy” ...

Yesterday Hon Grant Robertson Minister of Finance issued a welcome ‘clear directive’ in the press to ensure every Government considers the wellbeing of New Zealanders when creating future budgets . ...

The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa has written to Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters today urging that New Zealand condemn the Israeli Prime Minister’s planned annexation of vast tracts of the occupied West Bank of Palestine. ...

Today Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence (NPM) releases its next Te Arotahi paper calling on government to pay even closer attention to the issues of whānau and whakapapa within the criminal justice system. ...

“Technology adoption supports higher productivity growth, higher income growth and increased resources to pay for the things New Zealanders’ value. But the main problem facing New Zealand today isn’t too much technology, it’s not enough,” ...

Federated Farmers is asking nicely - please can the Government immediately extend the timeframe of the Essential Freshwater consultation so we can find a pathway forward that provides for both the health of the water, the health of people and the health ...

Youthline applauds the Government’s commitment to boosting mental health and addiction programmes and its intention to establish a Suicide Prevention Office but we urge swifter action in relation to implementing the programmes announced in the last budget ...

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An Auckland mayoral candidate has broken the internet* by announcing a plan for a monorail around the central city. Who is Craig Lord, and is he serious? Alex Braae spoke to him shortly after his campaign launch to find out.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The SpinoffMembers. ...

Antibiotics are becoming increasingly less effective, so what treatments can we use when the drugs stop working? With help from plant extracts, award-winning company HerbScience is set to breathe new life into how we treat bacterial infections.When Cynthia Hunefeld was just 10 years old, her father was hospitalised with a ...

For some, it symbolises the very backbone of New Zealand’s food culture. But can Kiwi onion dip survive after the factory that makes reduced cream is shut down?The Australian factory that makes Nestlé reduced cream, an integral ingredient in Kiwi onion dip, is shutting down, casting a shadow over the ...

Every year Matariki X brings Māori innovators and entrepreneurs together to share their experiences and inspire one another. Callaghan Innovation’s Vinnie Campbell says the Māori economy’s biggest strengths have nothing to do with money.This story was funded by The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The ...

Today marks the start of Covering Climate Now. To launch the week, the New Zealand climate change minister, James Shaw, writes an open letter to participants in the School Strike 4 Climate ahead of their day of action later this month.The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is thanks to ...

National’s new agriculture spokesperson finds himself in one of the party’s most important portfolios, at a time of dramatically increasing tensions in the sector. Will Todd Muller, a man regularly mentioned as a future leader contender, find common ground?Todd Muller’s obsession with politics began with an American encyclopaedia, which his ...

Miss June’s Bad Luck Party was recorded literally between hospital shifts, and their summer schedule includes both festival dates and their frontwoman’s graduation from medical school. We sat down with the band to ask just how, exactly, they’ve survived so far.The first years of life for Tāmaki Makaurau pop-punk quartet ...

The following four short extracts are from A City Possessed: The Christchurch Child Crèche Case by Lynley Hood, which has just been reprinted by Otago University Press. The book was first published in 2001 and won the Montana Medal for Non-Fiction at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. The controversial ...

Hamilton councillors have drawn headlines this year for being anti-science and insensitive to terror victims. At a mayoral debate on Wednesday, there were signs a campaign for change is gathering force.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The SpinoffMembers. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click ...

The Spinoff editor writes on the story that has engulfed NZ politics this week.One of the very few positive things to come out of a hideous week in New Zealand politics has been the sieving-out of the blinkered, partisan zealots. On one side, those who are ready to conjure up ...

In June 2018, Rawinia Higgins was appointed chairperson of Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori. She’s the first female and the first te reo Māori second-language speaker to hold the role, and during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, she sat down with The Spinoff to talk about her ...

Compulsory New Zealand history in schools is an exciting opportunity but it’s crucial we’re critical of the stories we tell ourselves, writes Dr Aroha Harris. History is not simply an assemblage of facts and evidence. History is also the interrogation of those things.This may be unsettling news for some, including the ...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Senior Research Fellow, Moral philosophy, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Law Futures Centre, Griffith University Argument is everywhere. From the kitchen table to the boardroom to the highest echelons of power, we all use argument to persuade, investigate new ...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alastair Blanshard, Paul Eliadis Chair of Classics and Ancient History Deputy Head of School, The University of Queensland Comedy often succeeds where tragedy fails. Fangirls, the pop musical which premiered on Thursday night in Brisbane, is not the first drama to explore ...

On the 10th anniversary of the infamous “Imma let you finish” episode, Josie Adams reflects on what this moment revealed about both Taylor Swift and Kanye West.Cast your mind back a decade: 2009 DJ Earworm was still good, Barack Obama was sworn in as president of the US, Israeli ground ...

Analysis - An astounding week in politics has left Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern carrying responsibility for sorting out the mess the Labour Party is in over the sexual assault allegation, writes Peter Wilson. ...

Police Minister Stuart Nash has confirmed details of a new bill that will create a registry of guns, and new offences and penalties for illegal manufacture, trafficking or changing markings of firearms. ...

Charli XCX has just released her latest album, Charli. The futuristic musician is always looking ahead, and so are her fans. We’ve paired each star sign with their perfect Charli XCX song.Charli XCX burst onto the scene in 2012, when she co-wrote and performed electro-pop headbanger ‘I Love It’ with ...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Benedict Sheehy, Associate professor, University of Canberra British health-care conglomerate Bupa runs more nursing homes in Australia than anyone else. We now know its record in meeting basic standards of care is also worse than any other provider. This is more than ...

Fable is best remembered for the disastrous, over-the-top promises made by its designer Peter Molyneux. But maybe, Adam Goodall argues, we’re remembering it all wrong.“There is something I have to say. And I have to say it because I love making games.” So opens an October 2004 post on the ...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Senior Research Fellow, Moral philosophy, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Law Futures Centre, Griffith University Argument is everywhere. From the kitchen table to the boardroom to the highest echelons of power, we all use argument to persuade, investigate new ...

The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Native Son: The Writer’s Memoir by Witi Ihimaera (Penguin Random House, $40)Stand by for a review from ...

Tara Ward delved into Māori TV’s impressive OnDemand catalogue and found some of the best TV taonga for your viewing pleasure. From lifestyle shows to documentaries, from current affairs to reality TV, Māori TV has an abundance of quality telly that celebrates and acknowledges the people, places and cultures of ...

A new poem by London-based poet Morgan Bach.Turning, hurtlingI march diligently to sunshine in the parkeverything bathed and turning golden.A woman breathes fire by the folly framing herlike a personal door to hell. Conkers are pitched from high boughsto break and give up fruit, a spire emergent from the baring ...

Simon Day learns about the history and power of Chinese five-spice. Both the origins of Chinese five-spice and the flavour itself are a little mysterious. My internet investigations revealed the powder’s name could be in reference to the use of five spices (although this often grows to six or seven), or ...

Revelations around alleged sexual assault by a Labour staffer and the party inquiry into his behaviour have dominated the week. Alex Casey and Mihi Forbes join Gone By Lunchtime to survey the damage.Alex Casey, author of the Spinoff feature published on Monday, “A Labour volunteer alleged a violent sexual assault ...

In the fourth episode of Actually Interesting, The Spinoff’s monthly podcast exploring the effect AI has on our lives, Russell Brown speaks to Ana Arriola, general manager and partner at Microsoft AI and Research, about ethics and transparency in tech.Subscribe to Actually Interesting via iTunes or listen on the player below.To download this ...

Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Labour Party sexual assault allegations Andrea Vance (Stuff): How to make the Labour abuse scandal ...

Toi Kai Rākau Iti, who is running in the Eastern Bay of Plenty Kohi Māori constituency, encounters an unlikely channel of youth engagement.In te ao Māori you’re always looking for tohu, or symbols. They guide you through uncertain territory and help you make sense of the world. The arrival of ...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tomer Ventura, Senior Lecturer, School of Science and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast The creation of all-male or all-female groups of animals, known as monosex populations, has become a potentially useful approach in aquaculture and livestock rearing. Researchers and those in ...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Holmes, Director, Climate Change Communication Research Hub, Monash University Predictably, both major political parties are resisting calls this week for a parliamentary conscience vote to declare a climate emergency in Australia. The resistance is unsurprising because both the Coalition and Labor ...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Shi, Lecturer, Graduate School of Business and Law, RMIT University If the Religious Discrimination Bill passes into law, women may find it harder to get an abortion. That’s because health practitioners with an objection to performing the procedure on religious grounds ...